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Origin

Pronunciation

quiz

Main definitions of quiz in US English:

quiz2

verb

1Look curiously or intently at (someone) through or as if through an eyeglass.

‘deep-set eyes quizzed her in the candlelight’

2Make fun of.

‘he says there's a great deal of poetry in brewing beer, but of course he's only quizzing us’

noun

archaic

1A practical joke or hoax; a piece of banter or ridicule.

‘I am impatient to know if the whole be not one grand quiz’

1.1A person who ridicules or hoaxes another.

‘two ill-natured quizzes, who were suspected of writing for a very sarcastic paper’

2A person who is odd or eccentric in character or appearance.

‘she means to marry that quiz for the sake of his thousands’

Origin

Late 18th century: sometimes said to have been invented by a Dublin theater proprietor who, having made a bet that a nonsense word could be made known within 48 hours throughout the city, and that the public would give it a meaning, had the word written up on walls all over the city. There is no evidence to support this theory.